Information Services

Needing to justify their existence is no new topic for any corporate and/or government library. Many librarians struggle with how to effectively tell their positive ROI story to management in the language and perspective that is meaningful to budget/policy holders. This session will attempt to put some guidance on how librarians can put together their own ROI Dashboard to prove effective ROI.

Presenters: Stacey Bowers, Springer; George Scotti, Springer

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Information professionals are uniquely positioned to shape the emerging practices of real-time, crowd-sourced disaster response support services. From tornados to terrorists, our world seems to be facing an increased frequency and severity of large-scale natural and man-made discontinuities. At the same time, info pros face multiplying technological options for anticipating, monitoring and responding to emergent situations. Our long-held professional status as a trusted source, along with traditional information management skills, can act as “force multipliers” when we engage in social media as part of intelligent social networks in response to crises.

This session considers how involvement in disaster response support services can enable a new dimension of power and responsibility in your professional role, in addition to offering a multitude of transferable skills. It includes an overview of emergency preparedness options, an analytical framework within which to consider the changing nature of contemporary disasters, and concludes by delving into the example of a “regional resiliency system” as a prototype for enabling intelligent swarm behavior.

Presenters: Michael D. McDonald, National Sustainability Security Infrastructure Pandemic Initiative; Tim Siftar, Drexel University

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At a time when many organizations are demanding more collaboration and innovation from their employees, embedded librarianship offers an excellent opportunity to develop and promote your services. Many information professionals who implement embedded services report stronger relationships with their customers and increased job stability.

This program discusses the benefits and challenges of embedded services and give an overview of steps one should consider when implementing this model in the workplace. It also calls out some of the opportunities embedded services can provide for career growth.

Presenters: Reece Dano, Ziba Design; Gretchen McNeely, Ziba Design

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Even if you don’t have much time, money, or marketing expertise, you can still create a basic marketing plan to help guide your promotional efforts. The presenter quickly goes over the basics of marketing, then moves on to list the data you need to gather. After an explanation of the roles of alignment and terminology to help you relate to corporate management, the presenter reveals the five basic steps to take to craft a simple, practical marketing plan for one target market. This strategy is scalable–you can use it to write a detailed plan for the long-term or a quick-and-dirty one for a particular event or campaign. This program gets you thinking with a marketing mindset and lays out the tools you’ll need to create an effective plan.

Presenter: Kathy Dempsey, Libraries Are Essential

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Assessing and demonstrating the value of information, especially in challenging economic times, is one of the top issues for libraries and information centers today. Feedback suggests that while libraries are keen to measure ROI and demonstrate the value of information, they struggle to collate appropriate metrics. Usage is often a proxy for value, with purchase and renewal decisions based on user volume, usage activity, and costs per download. Libraries are aware of the need to dig deeper, and have crafted various approaches, albeit ad hoc, to capture more specific value measures such as time saved and cost saved. The research Springer and Outsell conducted attempts to tackle some of these challenges and put some real metrics around ROI by looking at four organizations on an international basis from both corporate and government agencies.

Presenters: George Scotti, Springer; Christy Confetti Higgins, Oracle

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Workforce reductions, downsizing, and layoffs are terms we’re all too familiar with today. For those considering a career change, it’s important to realize that your knowledge base is transferable. Developing a research business, also known as information brokering, is an exciting avenue to pursue and makes use of your existing research, writing, and communication skills. Owning a research business is one way to generate income creatively, puts you in charge of your life, makes it possible to work from home, and is intellectually stimulating. You have an opportunity to meet new people across the globe and work on interesting projects that contribute to the success of your clients.

Those who operate research businesses are part of a cadre of independent information professionals (IIPs) who conduct online, telephone or library research. The first session, an introduction to starting a research business, explores the types of services offered by IIPs, including secondary and primary research, competitive and market intelligence and analysis, or company and industry research. Some IIPs offer other services such as consulting, publishing, editing, or database and taxonomy development depending on interests and background. You can work as a generalist or specialize because of many target markets, industry sectors, and niches; or, you can focus on small and large companies – or both – in the public or private sector. This program covers skills requirements, desirable personality traits, marketing, deliverables, and budgeting and fees.

Session two focuses on the wide ranges of resources and tools required for starting a research business including an overview of fee-based aggregators and databases as well as deep Web sources and tools used for Internet research. The presenter shares tips and tricks for becoming a top-notch researcher.

Presenter: Amelia Kassel, MarketingBase

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Corporate and government libraries face unique opportunities and challenges when marketing their products and services. This two-part program provides a comprehensive look at creating a marketing campaign, from planning and stakeholder work through sustaining your marketing campaign. The presenters also look at ways to creatively incorporate social media tools into your marketing efforts. The first session covers strategic planning, stakeholder work and creating targeted messaging for your audiences. Session two focuss on launching, implementing, assessing and maintaining your campaign.

Presenters: Scott Brown, Social Information Group; George Scotti, Springer; Stacey Bowers, Springer

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What can you say about your library in 140 characters or less? What can you ask your colleagues? Twitter is all over the news as a tool for kids–but it can also be of use in your day-to-day library life. Twitter makes a bad first impression, but it has been used to push many libraries and businesses into the public eye with little effort or money. Learn what Twitter is, the tools for using it efficiently and how other libraries are using Twitter in their communities.

Presenter: Nicole C. Engard, ByWater Solutions

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The presentation presents a case study of a special library at a non-profit association with an emphasis on internal knowledge management. The presenter explains the process of an information audit, aimed at determining how the special library could better serve its clients.

Presenter: Lorette Weldon, Weldon Researchers

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Libraries purchase, license, lease or otherwise acquire all sorts of services from a variety of vendors. Whether the library is negotiating for content from a publisher or acquiring new technology or services from outside or related affiliate organizations, the staff responsible for budget and negotiations can ensure better results in terms of price and performance if they are armed with more knowledge, strategies, and tactics. The end result is more efficiency in a pressured budget situation, more clarity in products and service deliverables, reduction in renewal surprises, and increased competition among vendors, which yields better products.

Information professionals are expected to negotiate with an array of vendors in relation to content, technology, equipment, terms & conditions, licensing, training and price. This session helps info pros understand the intricacies of the vendors’ business model including cost structure, sales costs and product implementation.

Presenters: Michael Gruenberg, Gruenberg Consulting; Matt Dunie, Conquest Systems

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